Calendar

It is essential to understand that everything we read in The Zohar takes place within our connection. Our connection produces (gives birth to) “space,” a new dimension where the Creator will be revealed. In fact, this space in itself doesn’t exist. But if every one of us, with his point in the heart, yearns for connection with the others, our collective efforts construct this space, the network between us, for the revelation of the property of bestowal: the Creator.

This space can be regarded as the group. People constantly ask: “Where is spirituality: upward, downward, or somewhere on the side?” It is said in a prayer: “Where is the place of His Greatness?” It is no-where; it doesn’t have a place. You have to build this place from your relationship with the others. Together, you are constructing spiritual space and in it, you find the Creator.

Moreover, the Creator Himself is regarded as “the place” because we feel Him in the “place” that we create for Him. The Creator exists beyond any space. You yourselves have to build it: one collective and corrected desire similar to the Creator in the property of bestowal where the Creator will be revealed.

He can be revealed only in this way, in the equivalence of form, meaning in the place suitable for Him which is the very same property of bestowal. None else is possible. This place is the Temple, the House of the Creator, the desire of Malchut that has acquired the properties of Bina. This is why it is named Beit HaMikdash, the Sanctified House. Malchut is the house and sanctity is Bina’s property of bestowal.

Klipat Noga is a state of “half good/half evil,” and it’s a very fragile and stressful state. It is as though a person is standing on the edge between performing a grave crime or, on the contrary, a very good deed should he receive help. However, he swings back and forth unable to lean one way or the other. It’s as though he is split in two without the strength to perform a final choice, not knowing on which side of the scale to place a final, determining grain.

On one hand, he is unable to reject his ego which is the enormous desire to enjoy and his entire egoistic “possession.” On the other, he understands that if he does not free himself from it now with help from Above, he won’t be able to pass to the other side and enter the spiritual world. In this manner, he stands on the threshold not knowing on which side to step. He is like a knight at a crossroads. This is a state where one needs to make a choice.

Here, only the group, only the Upper Light can help a person finally make up his mind and pass himself over to the hands of the Upper One, transitioning to bestowal through faith above reason. The prayer here is not about help since this would mean that a person has already made a decision. The prayer is about the state in which he is unable to choose. This state is the beginning of the year or the beginning of a new change.

On one hand, we feel that we are wicked, and on the other, we lack the strength to reject all these egoistic qualities and states. We are unable to imagine how it is possible to live without them or how to make a step in order to rise above it. Only the Upper Light that comes to us during this state helps us make a choice and elevates us to faith above reason (bestowal over reception). It is then that the New Year begins for us, and this is called “a good record in the Book of Life.”

The Upper Light, the Creator, puts His signature in the book of life for us and guarantees to a person that from now on that person will proceed by the good path. Before this, one should do all that is in his power to bring himself to this choice. The direct translation of a “New Year (Rosh Hashanah)” is a “beginning of changes” or a “head of changes.” They need to occur often for us and always be for the better: toward the Creator who is “good and does good.”

While circulating the knowledge of Kabbalah, we unite our souls together into one vessel and create “a place where the Creator can be revealed” to all created beings. By doing so, we fulfill His wish and bring Him the utmost pleasure.

If we add all our suffering and multiply it by 620 (Pi Tarach) times, it will be equal to the suffering of the Creator from being forced to be concealed in order to give us a chance to mature. With each act of ours aimed at oneness, we add one more force of it (Masach and Ohr Hozer), one more soul to the collective number necessary for the revelation of the Creator. Through our action, we cause such changes in the souls which result in their suddenly starting to feel the existence of the Upper Force within, the force that enables and moves the entire world, defining every state it goes through.

There is a reason behind the earthquake in New Zealand, fires in Russia, and a tornado in America: They are parts of the collective state caused by the Creator so that we may start ascending to Him. And when we begin our ascent to the spiritual space and acknowledge this corporeal life as a necessary element, we will be rewarded with a wonderful life in this world. To achieve this, we have to be able to perceive the Creator at least in part.

Nothing will help our world but to feel that there is a force in this Universe, in Nature, and between us, the force that governs everything. And we are coming closer to such awareness thanks to the circulation of Kabbalah.

Question: How do we constantly remain on the “spiritual trajectory,” meaning at the point of making a decision that the spiritual space and unity come before material achievements?

Answer:As soon as we succeed in creating this kind of connection between us, “a place for revealing the Creator,” it immediately fades. This is done so that we are able to make this decision again and again. Every moment should be the “Beginning.” And what helps a person to make this constant choice is only a strong environment which allows him to maintain a connection (see Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”).

It is impossible to maintain this decision on your own for longer than a moment. We need to bring ourselves to a correct society, like putting a seed into soil, and receive the realization of the importance of the goal from it. Then you will be able to unite the points of decisions, forming them into a straight line to the goal.

Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

Main Kabbalistic Sources: Baal HaSulam’s Commentaries on the works of the ARI and The Book of Zohar

You should know that after the ARI’s time to this day there was no one [no such Kabbalist] who understood [completely attained] the ARI’s methodology to the very depth of its [original spiritual] roots since it is easier to comprehend it through the intellect twice as big as the ARI’s rather than to follow his methodology [of attaining the Upper One]. [This is because] his methodology passed through so many hands from the first descriptor till the last compiler [who had described it] without having attained these things fully, till their Upper roots, and, consequently, each of them contributed to changing and confusing its content. [The level of a researcher’s spiritual attainment doesn’t depend on his intellect, but rather on the type of his soul].

Here I am – a reincarnation of ARI’s soul – not because of my good deeds, but according to the Upper will which is concealed from me, why I am chosen to represent this miraculous soul that no other man but I merited from the day of his death until today. However, I cannot talk much about this issue because it is against my rules to talk about miracles. – Baal HaSulam, Igrot (Letters), Letter 39